We Shall Overcome

The signature song of the civil rights movement, and the song of "The Seeger Sessions" most closely associated with Pete Seeger. "We Shall Overcome" is the only song on "The Seeger Sessions" carrying a songwriter's credit for Pete Seeger, though his claim was largely a defensive measure. Seeger's songwriting for "We Shall Overcome" likely consisted of changing the word "will" to "shall," though Seeger has said, in some interviews, that he doesn't recall making that change.

This site documents recordings of "I'll Be All Right," which used the same basic melody and lyrical structure that was eventually used for "We Shall Overcome."

The song that became "We Shall Overcome" began to take form during a 1945 strike against the American Tobacco Company in South Carolina, when the African American women on the picket lined changed the "I" from the hymn "I'll Overcome Today" (itself an adaptation of "I'll Be All Right") to "We." During other events over the ensuing years, "will" became "shall," and verses such as "We are not afraid" were introduced.

The earliest recording of "We Shall Overcome" documented in this site was by Joe Glazer and the Elm City Four, in 1950. The Jewish Young Folk Singers recorded it in the early 1950s. In 1959, The Robert DeCormier Chorale recorded it a capella, as part of the album "Charlton Heston Reads from the Old Testament" (Heston's spoken biblical passages are not part of that track).

The more familiar recordings of the song during civil rights movement, including versions by Guy Carawan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and the Freedom Singers, were all recorded in the early 1960s. Although Seeger recorded a studio version (which is available from the audio page of this site), his live version at the Carnegie Hall concert in June, 1963, is definitive. Mahalia Jackson recorded the song after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968 (King loved the song, and used its lyrics as part of his own presentations), and Louis Armstrong recorded it for his final RCA album in 1970. In more recent years, "We Shall Overcome" has been recorded as gospel, for children's records, and also on Americana albums in the wake of 9/11.